Now that is something a decent retired person should not have to say, yet I find myself doing it. It’s been a busy week and today is the first day that I have not had some errand, or several to run. I’m fairly ecstatic.

The Contrarian is off to buy potting stuff, I bought a bunch of flowers and plants yesterday. I also got most of my herbs. Hopefully I can get them in later today. I’m waiting for the lemon curd to get cold and stiffen up before I finish the lemon cake. I’m not busy as you can see.

Diego continues to astound. He takes his job as paper boy very seriously, now waking us at 5:00 am should he hear a car go by. He is still having trouble differentiating the delivery man from the casual driver out for a spin before dawn.

He races eagerly out to the drive, looks around, finds nothing, then heads for the neighbors to see if there is a paper there. Finding none, he returns home, only to insist upon going through this scenario about every fifteen minutes.

Today, a new breakthrough occurred. After his first two trips were unsuccessful, it being Saturday and all, he had the fortuitous luck to meet the delivery guy on his third trip. As the guy pulled up to stop and extended his arm to through the paper, Diego bounded forth and took it from his hand. The guy thought this enormously fun, and waved and chuckled as he drove off.

Diego, of course will now want to sit out from about 4 am waiting his delivery. It is still unclear whether the Contrarian shares his eagerness to await the grand arrival.

There is nothing “new” about the New Ryan Budget. Just more of the same.

Seriously repeal Obamacare?

Seriously?

Yet Boehner the Orange will claim that it’s another “passed” budget out of the House.

We can pass one that says unicorns are now free to buy property too, and that stands as likely a chance of getting passed in the Senate.

They keep running the mantra that the “American people” wouldn’t have elected a majority of Republicans to the House if they didn’t believe in Republican fiscal principles.

No, franking the word gerrymandering comes to mind when I look for an explanation of why the GOP retained the House.

Bloomberg’s attempt to reduce the size of sugary drinks in NYC, didn’t fare too well before the courts.

Sarah of course appeared at CPAC carrying and sucking on her Big Gulp, all to show victory over stupid liberals and their attempts to control what we stuff in our mouths.

It wasn’t that many decades ago when getting fit was a national event, and nobody suggested that the government shouldn’t play a part.

Now it’s some conspiracy.

The Right thrive on conspiracies. I’m sure some bright Republican entrepreneur will soon open a shop for selling conspiracies. “We will design the conspiracy that’s right for you!” “Everything you don’t like can be explained by a conspiracy. Get your’s now!”

Trouble is, they are still caught up in the shall we drink tea or return to good scotch?

CPAC was a perfect example of speaker after speaker coming forth and starting with “Forget what he/she said, what we really need to do is. . . .”

I think it’s best if the scotch drinkers just lock the doors and refuse admittance to the tea boat folks. After all, they are none too smart, and surely cold turkey is best doncha think? (NO not wild turkey!)

Republicans have yet to learn the lesson that judges appointed for life, tend to have a mind of their own.

Your concerns are theirs about as long as it takes to confirm them. Then, well they have other concerns.

Sometimes those concerns don’t involve your petty social bigotries.

It’s funny to hear the Right lament their “conservative” judicial appointments as now activitists.

Some are so angry and so utterly devoid of constitutional knowledge that they suggest that the SCOTUS, after all is just an “opinion”, and one they need not follow.

Yeah, like evolution is just a “theory”.

The GOP can’t seem to find its way on immigration either. The Tea People want them all deported.

The GOP wants to win an election someday that is larger than a state.

Never the twain shall meet.

The compromise is permanent residence status, or as South Africa calls it, “the good old days.”

On a side note, I hear tell, (have no confirmed, but heck it’s too good not to be true) that Michelle Malkin is an anchor baby herself, born in this country to ” immigrants” who were then allowed to apply for citizenship because their daughter was a natural citizen.

Hypocrisy, thy name is Right-Wing pundits. Malkin is known for her rabid hatred of immigrants who have children and then apply for citizenship through the child. She opposed citizenship for anyone simply by being born in this country. Doncha just love it?

Oh please, even the GOP can do better than this.

Santorum ain’t done yet. And perhaps we can get Sarah to make a run.

Please this can’t be all they can come up with.

They are just salivating for Hillary.

Funny thing, is so are we.

She beats every one of them in head to head polling.

Maybe an Allen West will stick his black heart in (and I do no black not Black). Oh please God, do have a sense of humor once more.

The far right thought the Obama trip to Israel would go badly. If you don’t believe me, fast backward to the crazy sites in anticipation of the trip and read the comments.

It’s a bit like Bill Clinton. The right was chewing towels when Clinton escaped the “trap” laid by the GOP and his popularity soared.

The reactionary Right continues to predict disaster in Obama’s relationship with Israel, except that by all accounts he wowed them as usual.

It must make them mad. I bet they spend the evening loading rounds in the basement and checking once again if they have enough spam to withstand the “insurrection” that is coming any day now.

Sir Boehner of Orange is not a man who is cozy with the truth. He, like so many of his cohorts, believe it is a most malleable thing to be twisted and pulled into whatever shape is necessary to feed the agenda they are pushing at any given time.

The Grand Bargain that Boehner continues to claim fell through because the President “changed” the offer at the last minute, is a total lie. In fact Boehner made the deal only to discover that he could not control the crazy element in his own caucus. Because of the Hastert Rule (thou shalt not bring to the floor a bill not already approved by a majority of your party), Boehner knew the deal could only pass with Democratic help. That he was not prepared to do, so he created the myth that the President changed the offer.

Given that time was short and the GOP was threatening to destroy the economy unless they got their way, the President proposed a draconian alternative that would come into play in six months. This was supposed to ensure that a meaningful debate and agreement would ensue to avoid the awfulness of the sequester. The President originally offered a 50/50 deal–there would be a sequester that consisted of half tax increases and half budget cuts. Boehner refused that deal and insisted that all be cuts.

Moreover, at the conclusion of the sequester deal, Boehner bragged to the press and anyone else that would listen that he had gotten “98% of everything he had been asking for” so he declared himself and his Party the winner.

Those are the real facts.

What the GOP continues to miss here, is that we are not so gullible nor so stupid that we don’t know these facts. So, his little attempt to hijack the truth in favor of his new reality only elicits nods and uhuh’s from his own stupid base. The rest of America sees it for the series of lies it is, and of course, realizes that the GOP is still the party that protects corporate interests to the detriment of the rest of us.

No lessons yet learned. The GOP continues to wallow in the mire of lies. It will remain a party that can’t win the big one. It will continue to try to figure out ways to steal elections. It will continue to be the best comedy routine in town.

•

You have heard no doubt that the President is heading to Israel? And when he is there, he’s going to get a Presidential Medal of Distinction. And the Right wing reactionaries are livid. They just cannot understand why the vast majority of us cannot see that this man is a horrid, vile, Commie, Islamic lovin’ Israel hater. I mean they cannot fathom this as it is SO obvious that he has a “visceral hostility toward Israel.”

Their answer is of course that the person giving him the medal, Israeli President Shimon Peres, is just a figurehead, who is not liked by most of the population.

It makes me laugh. And then I read their shock and dismay again, and I laugh a bit louder and longer.

The circus continues.

•

I do so appreciate a Republican who wants to help the poor. Jeff Sessions is ready to do just that. His method? Cut welfare of course. I mean really, it just breeds dependency doesn’t it? At least that’s what Newt said back in the 90’s when he pushed through the welfare reforms that resulted in tens of thousands losing their benefits. (hint: you might find some of these folks among the homeless today.)

Anyway, Sessions is bristling at the idea that the GOP is being called the party of the rich. And in a memorandum, he made it clear that they shouldn’t tie this deep desire to help out our poor by tying it to deficit reduction–that looks bad. Instead cuts in food stamps and such should be tied to helping business get healthy so those jobs become available. As everyone knows giving stuff to the poor just breeds more grabby people. Everyone knows that.

Boy, I feel ever so much better knowing the GOP really has a heart.

•

If you have been wondering why the price of gas has gone up sharply, well, yes you guessed it, you can blame the neo-cons. They pushed sanctions against Iranian oil, making Europe and others refuse to buy any. The neo-cons were sure of course (they always are) that this would not impact American prices.

They were also sure that Saudi Arabia would pick up the slack. (That now seems unlikely).

West Texas oil is selling at $100 a barrel, which is not good either.

All this causes prices to rise (and Iran gets the benefit of that for what oil it does sell).

Much has been said lately about the efforts of GOP’ers around the country to limit the vote.

Efforts have been under way, and in many places successful in putting up road blocks for those wishing to exercise their right to cast a ballot.

All such efforts have occurred in states that have Republican majorities in their state congresses.

Most have resulted in various forms of Voter ID requirements that are particularly onerous on students, the elderly and minority populations. In some cases a permit to carry a gun is proof enough, while a college ID is not.

This is all in the name of preventing “voter fraud.” This is the argument even though there was something like like less than 400 cases of voter fraud NATION WIDE in the last election, and studies going back into the late 80’s, proved no worse.

Meanwhile, it is estimated that as many as 5 million potential voters could be denied their right to vote by these voter restriction laws.

So it’s a real issue.

Some colleges are re-issuing college IDs to meet the very specific requirements of laws designed to make their IDs invalid.

Lots of volunteers are massing to help the elderly locate birth certificate alternatives where none were issued when they were born.

It should be noted that there are dozens of anecdotal cases in which people have voted for over 50 years and are well-known in their small towns, yet they will be turned away without “proper ID.” Sometimes people are donating money to pay the legal fees to help these folks get the proper papers.

A lot of lawyers will make a lot of money in order to work all this out.

And it does seem odd that a party would be so intent on trying to deprive so many people of their right to vote.

I mean the party of “the constitution” should be, you would think, the party that defends the right to vote to the death, wouldn’t you think?

When there are only a very very few folks who attempt to vote illegally, and they certainly don’t effect any results, one would think that it would behoove the GOP to vociferously stand on the right to vote against all challenges.

Now, alternatively.

One could make a very good case.

That people, over the age of 15, who are not being paid, and are not compelled, and are not entering a contest for money–who dress like his because they want to, might be of questionable ability to cast a knowing, intelligent vote.

People like this decide to spend money to buy costumes and materiél and dress up in their HOMES, and then go out IN THE STREETS dressed like their favorite hero, or to express their solidarity? with some sports team.

They drive in CARS along FREEWAYS, scaring the bejesus out of normal law-abiding citizens.

They teach your children, and handle your money and do your taxes and other things that we value.

I ask you, if you saw one of these walking insane asylums dressed up in their finery, would you leave your children with them? Give them your cash for safekeeping? Trust them to fix the faucet? Of course not.

And I would argue, they should be prohibited from voting.

Why are the Republicans not fighting to prevent these questionable brain-limited, only partly human beings from voting? Huh?

Oh, I see. Because they are Republicans.

My bad.

♦

Things are so bad for Rick Perry these days, that he can gaffe away, and nobody bothers to mention it. He’s having a free gaffe holiday.

Just say Solynda instead of Soyndra and call it a country. **pat on the head** little Ricky.

Michele Bachmann has taken as of late to touting her bona fides on Israel by telling us that she volunteered at a kibbutz in her young adulthood. Does the bubble-hair know that kibbutz’s were experiments in “collectivism” *GASP* not capitalism?

Ya have to laugh. As you might suspect, The Blaze does little if any original investigation or reporting. Mostly they reprint others work. Shockingly, they reported a AP item which investigated the claims made by various of the GOP candidates in the last debate, and offered the truth of the various statements and allegations. For instance it found that Michele Bachmann’s claim that Newt was for cap-and-trade, to be true, even though Newt denied it. Similarly it found Mitt’s claim that Obama was the first President to cut Medicare to be false, finding that both Bush and Clinton had also done so.

But Blazey nincompoops can’t stomach that. So they attacked the AP as being. . . .you guessed it. . . . a liberal machine. And various other excuses that it doesn’t matter, because the devil must be defeated.

Sleep well my friends. The sky intends to stay up for at least another day.

You know, there have always been small groups that picketed this or that thing. The Greenpeace folks, the PETA people. They remained small.

But then along came Arabs, mostly Muslims. And the world changed.

In Yemen, in Egypt, in Syria and in Libya, people took to the streets. And no matter what happened, they kept coming back. And they keep coming back.

Until finally America woke as well. And citizens, young and old, from all walks of life, took to the streets.

Elections were head in Russia. And they took to the streets to protest what they perceived to be a “fix.”

And they are meeting on global warming, and they have taken to the streets to plead for governments to stop the madness of doing nothing.

And it pretty much started with Muslims who risked life and limb and shamed the rest of the world into seizing their moment, and not “taking it any more.”

I wonder if the Oxford Dictionary will include “mike check” in the next edition?

♦

The Beckian Lunatic Fringe (BLF) hates Occupy Wall Street. Which is ironic since they hate bank bailouts. But they love corporate giants and the rich. They do the bidding of the rich in the hopes that they too can be so one day. That ain’t gonna happen. Why don’t they get that?

♦

When Herm was in the game, his screw-ups, which were numerous to say the least, went largely ignored by his followers. One could argue that Perry has made fewer, and not nearly as egregious. Yet, Herm was forgiven, and Perry was unceremoniously dumped. Why? Perry was immediately seen as someone who could not debate Obama. The crazy Right mouths that Obama is stupid, but they really know he isn’t, and they knew he would mop the floor with Perry.

So Perry was not electable. Herm on the other hand, in their dementia, was Black and in their bigoted heads, it meant he would bleed off the African-American vote as Herm enticed all the field hands off the Democratic plantation. They saw Herm as electable, and more important controllable as several GOP pundits were eager to reassure the racist Right.

♦

That baseball player Pujols who played for the World Series champs, the Cardinals? He turned down a $22 million/year for 10 year contract with St. Louis to move to the Angels for about $25 million/year for 10 years.

Did that three million really make such a difference that you would abandon your team of many years?

More importantly, some have done a check on the cost of living between the two places, and it turns out Pujols will actually lose money by that analysis.

Why do we stand for paying people such sums for failing most of the time?

I believe it’s one of the top 12 questions Jesus will be asking when he returns.

♦

Newt styles himself as an “intellectual” of sorts. Not the elite type as I’m sure he would re-assure the trailer voters he sucks up to. But some other kind, like the self-less ones who study just for the purpose of righting the record on our Founding Fathers real beliefs, our true foundations, and so forth.

Truthfully, we are woefully under-represented when it comes to intellectuals. A fine post by Gary Gutting, Professor of Philosophy at Notre Dame. He has a great idea. It of course has no chance of being used.

♦

It looks like there will only be two candidates at the Trump debate: Santorum and Newt.

I don’t know how to react to that. It might be utterly boring, or more fun than watching Karl Rove getting a root canal. I just don’t know yet.

I wonder if Newt wishes he hadn’t? I bet he does.

Does Ricky have the nerve to attack?

The Donald can’t be pleased.

♦

Did you known that the SIX heirs to the Walton (Wal-Mart) fortune, net worths are equal to that of 30% (thirty percent) of the rest of Americans?

But they find it impossible to treat their employees with even a semblance of fairness in benefits and advancement.

♦

Speaking of Karl Rove. His Crossroads Super Pac which is doing the most vicious ads around these days, has offered itself up on the irony bed. After first attacking Elizabeth Warren (running for Senator from MA), for being in “bed” with the Occupy Wall Street crowd, he now comes out with an ad attacking her for being in “bed” with. . .*drum roll* WALL STREET!

Got to love Karl. He treats the rabble GOP electorate for the unthinking, unknowledgeable folks they are. Trouble is, those are not nearly enough zombies to elect someone for dog-catcher in Hoboken.

Even Michael Steele wonders whether the GOP has a clue what Americans think about anything these days. He mopes they are getting way of tune with reality.

♦

Looks like the Congressional GOP buffoons will try the usual end around play. Since they hold that majority in the House with no filibuster rule, they intend to pass a pay-roll tax bill with all sorts of awful amendments and then go home for the holidays, figuring that that leaves the ball in Harry Reid’s court.

I confess that I never thought animals were terribly thoughtful. I figured they were pretty much responsive to stimuli creatures. Brandy taught us otherwise. We learned from her that dogs at least can think and plan, and make choices. A new dimension has been added as we watch Bear cope with her absence.

Bear didn’t seem to express the typical mourning we expected, though he looked for her a lot, and avoids her grave. He went there once that we know of, removing a rawhide bone we had left in her dish and bringing it back to drop at the Contrarian’s feet.

Over time, we noticed a real oddity. The two had always had their own idiosyncracies. Brandy would lay impatiently in the doorway to the kitchen while we ate. Bear would lay elsewhere. Now he has taken up that position each day. When snacks are eaten at night, again, she was the pushy one, wiggling and twitching at each bite. He would lay back, appearing to not care. Now he does the wiggling and twitching.

It is like he feels that he must take over all her behaviors as well as his own. We don’t know how he thinks about this, but clearly he is pondering his role within the house.

An article on recursive thinking, long thought to be the province of humans only, is being re-examined. Recursive thinking is the human ability to look backward in time at distant events, and then place them in future scenarios. Studies now suggest that chimpanzees engage in such thinking, and certainly I saw instances of Brandy doing the same as she planned how to get Bear off the couch so she could have it.

We are all of us living beings so much more alike than we are different. Evolution tells me so. 🙂

♦

See the new Herm Cain ad? The one with his campaign manager smoking? Seems that his manager has some “issues”. Charges of voter suppression that got him banned in Wisconsin for three years, drunk driving convictions, foreclosures, unpaid bills and taxes.

Yesterday, I picked up this on MSNBC talk shows: The Cain campaign is in utter disarray since Cain is conflicted between his “book tour” agenda and where the VOTERS ARE. Also we understand that new campaign staff are informed that under no circumstances are they to speak to the king unless the king speaks to them first. Doncha love that kind of stuff?

♦

I was just a thinkin’ (dangerous I know). I’m really surprised that the scientific community doesn’t make more of this, along the lines of the possible finding of faster-than-light particles. I mean it is revolutionary in a scientific sense. What do I mean?

Why the fact that “trickle-down” economics is a perfect proof that money at least doesn’t always obey the laws of gravity. The money seems to go up, instead of falling down.

Just a thought.

♦

Do you find it tiresome that the clueless Right continues to whine that the OWS folks have no “message” and then likens them to anarchists? Are they unable to read the signs? Or is it that the Right is so attuned to the “talking point” that it can’t understand that people might just be individualistic enough to think for themselves and create signs that reflect that? Slate has a good article on this today.

♦

Need a laugh? Juanita Jean’s usually has one. This is Rolling Stones little nod to our boy Ricky (aww shucks, I ain’t no good at debatin’) Perry. This is The Best Little Whore in Texas. It’s Friday. It’s been a long week. Teaser: this description–“a goggle-eyed mega church Joan of Arc like Michele Bachmann”. Or this one: “Perry is a human price tag”. Now that’s some writing I can love. It’s Mike Taibbi of course.

Seriously, if you want to know how Perry attracts money all the while being an awful speaker, this article gives you a big clue. Long article but well worth it.

♦

I am a jinx. We turned Game 6 of the World Series off in disgust. In the 8th inning. Texas was up two runs. The Cardinal pitching was awful. There had been five errors, causing me to question how these could be the two best teams in the “world.” Course, it turned into an exciting game. And now there will be a Game 7. We will watch it. But. . . it will undoubtedly be a no-hit one run winner for Texas. That’s my prediction, since I’m gonna watch it. If I don’t watch it, it will be 24-23 after 15 innings and the Cardinals will win.

What to do, what to do?

♦

If you needed any more evidence that Herm Cain is stupid, I mean really stupid? Well he went to Israel. And he refers to the Palestinians as the “so-called Palestinian people.” And he says that the only reason they want statehood is because Obama is so weak. Except that he was once in favor of a right of return policy. Sort of, as best he could understand what it meant. How can only a so-called people have a state to return to Herm? And I think the desire for statehood on the part of the Palestinians might be a tad older than the three years Obama has been in office.

Do they not have a basic primer for you Herm? Can’t your smokin’ campaign manager find you a Dick and Jane version of world history?

I fear for there will never be a day again on planet earth that is not weighed down with the collective sluggishness of the stupid element.

I still wonder at the insanity of the GOP. With the polling decidedly against them, they continue on blithely with their agenda. Case in point was John Kasich, governor of Ohio and designated spokesperson to “respond” to the President’s weekly speech.

Kasich, the second most disliked GOP governor, only silly Scott in Florida fares worse, rattled off the usual GOP talking points of “lower taxes on corporations (oops, I meant job creators) and relief from regulations” and then took to slamming the unions once more as “job killers”.

Now Kasich, faced with a landslide of anger at his attempt to Wisconsinite unions in his state, chose to do that. I mean with full knowledge that he is gonna lose in his own state on that very issue. Did the GOP hold a gun to his head? Or is he just that stoopid?

Kasich, by the way, tried to get the progressives to come in to “discuss” the union issue now that it is quite clear it will be overturned by the people. Of course the progressives smiled and said no thanks. No stoopid there.

Two relics of evolutionary failure, Johnny (I hate the world for not electing me President) McCain, and his obnoxious bunk buddy Lindsay (I dream of Johnny with the light blond hair) Graham, has the audacity to praise Europe and the Middle East for their actions against the Qaddafi regime. This while they “regret the delay caused by the insufficient air power offered by the US. Is there ANYTHING ON EARTH THAT YOU JACKASSES WOULD APPLAUD THIS PRESIDENT FOR? It would be a pleasure to strap both of you to a nice little rocket and send you both to Qaddafi with a ribbon tied to your genitals gentlemen. ( the full statement can be viewed here.) You’re both stoopid, and one of you knows it.

♦

Michele (aww I just hate your guts Perry) Bachmann, is excusing her multiple gaffes by a “busy schedule”. I suppose that is an answer, though what in the world does she think the President’s schedule might be like? I would put it down to that she’s just stoopid. Bachmann is reported to have offered to show her panties if the media would stop covering Ricky Perry so much. (remember stretching the incredulity muscle!)

♦

I do believe I could make this stuff up and you wouldn’t know the difference. It’s just that stoopid out there.

It has been my fervent belief, prayer, and hope, sensible people hoodwinked by promises of jobs and balanced budgets would come to their senses.

In other words, they would realize that though they were promised these things, what they got was uptight religious wackos and their social engineering to suit their personal moral codes. They got some balanced budgets, but to the detriment of the poor, working and middle classes while rich fat cats were protected.

In other words, they got taken for a ride. Instead of jobs they got union busters, cuts in education and social programs, and restrictions on voting, right to choose, collective bargaining.

A couple of weeks ago, we revisited the sad state of Iowa’s nutjob, Bobby Vander Plaats, who, with tons of out-of-state money, successfully unseated three Iowa Supreme Court justices who had determined that Iowa’s refusal to marry gays in the state was unconstitutional.

Vander Nuts is still at it of course, trying to extract pledges from GOPers vying for Iowa votes come the next primary. And as you might guess, our own (I say that with great and grevious shame) Michele “Fundies are Best” Bachmann has been one of the first to sign, along with that other bastion of intellectual ineptitude, Ricky, “Don’t google me” Santorum.

What is most troubling about this idiocy, is that it goes on to explain, that children born into slavery had it better than their peers today. I quote:

Slavery had a disastrous impact on African-American families, yet sadly a child born into slavery in 1860 was more likely to be raised by his mother and father in a two-parent household than was an African-American baby born after the election of the USA’s first African-American President.

Yes, you read that right. The fact that black couples were not free to legally marry and that they or their children could be sold, thus destroying that “family unit” seems to have escaped the ignorant Vander jackass.

♦

I picked up this quote from Mother Jones’ Kevin Drum, who quotes from Upton Sinclair:

It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.

And ain’t that the truth? How many (all?) politicians does that apply to?

♦

Oh I forgot to tell ya. I’m sending an email to the winner of the first Stupido Award, and telling them that for a small fee, plus shipping and handling, they can get a nice copy of their award, suitable for framing. I’ll post the actual letter when I decide who won. Still time to vote!

♦

I don’t know about you, but I continue to be utterly awed by the courage exhibited by people in the Middle East. They continue to risk death or serious injury to protect and ultimately topple the governments that have repressed them for decades.

What’s on the stove: Well, I split a breast, roasted it (chicken-not human), and am gonna place it on a bed or lettuce and other salady things, napping it with a lovely honey-mustard dressing. So there.